Month: January 2016

Adidas sneaker available hereblack pants available heresunglasses available herewhite vest available hereMichael Kors bag available herewhite sweater available here

It’s saturday morning and the sun is shining threw my curtains. It’s going to be a beautiful day. But I’m not ready to get out of bed just yet. The bed is simply too cozy. Instead of leaving my cozy duvet I reach for my iPad that’s on my nightstand and continue listening to my audio book (at the moment I’m listening to Gone Girl – an amazing audiobook!). One of my favorite things on the weekend is to just read my favorite blog entries and just randomly surf the internet. And it mostly happens that I come across a lot of new things that I would like to have and discover a new Online Shop, like the one where I found all those amazing pieces above. After I’ve done some damage on my credit card it’s finally time to get up and be productive. After all I have to finish my semester paper on one point, right?

last week I finished my exams for this semester which means that I only have to write a term paper and than I will have a few weeks off university. I’m really looking forward to this free time but in the past few weeks while studying I followed some tips to stay up on track with my tasks so I wrote down some tips for you 🙂

Productivity is something a lot of us struggle with nowadays because there is just so much distraction around with our Smartphone, E-mails and TVs. Although we all have different ways of working sometimes it’s following the little tips that can help us stay focused.

1. Declutter your work space

Mess creates stress – and a clean work space keeps you from distractions and helps you stay focused on what you’re doing right now.

2. Don’t check your Mails during your productive times

Check your Mails twice a day, once in the morning before you start working or studying and after lunch. That’s all the time you should spend on them in order to not be interrupted

3. Shut off your phone

The same goes for your phone. Research shows that constantly checking your phone decreases your ability to focus on a task. So shut it off and put it out of sight – it won’t hurt, I promise 😉

4. Know yourself

Knowing when you can be productive is probably the most helpful thing. For me I’m always the most productive during late afternoon and in the evenings. For most people it’s early in the day though so knowing your productive time is very important. Use it!

5. Do not stress

It’s never worth it. Plus you’ll stay more focused if you don’t.

6. Take breaks seriously

Everyone knows that breaks are important. But don’t take breaks like watching TV or Youtube videos. You’ll get stuck and never get back to your task. Instead, try finishing some other tasks on your list like doing your laundry or cooking something healthy and treat yourself to a nice meal.

7. Make a plan

Whether you have to get ready for an exam or finish a work project or just try to get something important done – mapping it out and make a plan will help.

8. Ask for help when needed

If you’re stuck don’t have a tough time with it and just ask for help. Some times it helps just to talk to a friend and explain the problem. While doing that you’ll come up with the solution yourself or you’ll get a different perspective from a friend which can help you during the problem solution process.(Also googling helps a lot 😉 )

9. Make sure the outcome is worth the effort.

Putting things into perspective helps decreasing stress when you’re on a deadline. Ask yourself – Is all the effort worth the outcome?

10. Hold yourself accountable.

Make yourself and your work accountable. Because nothing else is.

11. Figure out your routine

Sticking to a routine can actually help you get things done. Whether it’s a set morning routine or exercise – routine will help you get the things done you wanna get done.

12. Drink water

A lot of it.

13. There is never a perfect time for anything.

Never. You might as well just do it now.

14. Not everything has to be perfect.

If you have problems with procrastination this one will be like a holy grail for you. If you postpone and postpone just realize that no one is perfect and neither has your essay have to be perfect.

15. Exercise

My favorite one? Dancing in front of the mirror like you’re Beyonce 😉 Hope you find this tips helpful. If you have some of your own feel free to share them in the comments so we can help each other out 🙂Lots of Love, Melanie

something exciting happened: Melanie and I finally saw each other for the first time since we have the blog together. We both couldn’t believe it either 😉 Even though it was just for two days, we had a great time. We celebrated New Year’s Eve together in Munich with some friends and decided to do the photoshoot the next day. Yes – we know – normal people just relax on the first day of the year and don’t do anything but we just had to 🙂

It felt like in Hawaii (just much colder) when hanging out together, drinking champagne to welcome the new year and dancing through the apartment. We were very happy that it was a house party because the city is always packed on New Year’s.

We made some homemade pizza which was sooooo good. Normally, people in Germany do Raclette or Fondue for that night. I am not sure if people in other countries have heard of that but when doing Raclette you put some vegetables, a cooked a potato and whatever else fits in a very very small pan and into a Raclette oven that stands in the middle of the table. Fondue is more for the meat eaters, while the small Fondue meat you have on a Fondue fork is cooking in boiled water which is on the table as well, you can dip your baguette in crazy sauces like a cowberry or banana dip. Well, at least our family is so crazy to make these dips and I think for the next time, I would like to have this meal again. A friend also made some homemade “Feuerzangenbowle” which is a traditional German alcoholic drink where a rum-soaked sugarloaf is set on fire into mulled wine. A glas of that is totally enough, but it just tastes wonderful and so much like home. At 12 o’clock we all went outside to shoot our fireworks which surprisingly took almost an hour 🙂

Do you have any traditions on New Years?

After our photoshoot, Melly drove back home to enjoy some dinner with her family while me and my boyfriend were having a board game evening at our friend’s house.

We decided to show you our favorite cozy sweaters. It was a super cold day and without our sweaters we probably would have frozen there. They are both in a grey color since it fits nicely to our dark hair and also a little oversized. I have to say, Melanie and me both love oversized shirts in general, especially when you combine it with some tight pants. That makes it look comfortable but also fashionable.

A second part of the photoshoot is coming next week, so you can look forward to that!

I hope you all had a great “slide” into the new year. Today, I am only writing a mini post for you because I am flying back to the States tomorrow and still have a lot of packing to do as well as hanging out with the family on my last day 🙂

But I wanted to share one little problem of mine I have had for the last weeks: my lips are super dry. The weather has been crazy on my lips, they get dry because of the wind and the cold and also the drastic weather change that has been happened the last weeks. Maybe you have the same problem as well and are as desperate as I was. But then I bought a lip balm from L’Occitane en Provence. This is a great brand, I have already used body lotions, shower gels and hand creams. Now I’ve tried the lip balm for the first time and it works very well. I am using it about three times a day and my lips have already been better since I began.

That was already the small post and I hope you enjoyed it a little bit and maybe it could help you. For the next weeks there are some really cool things coming we are preparing for you.